For some reason my employer is thinking about getting BBs for some of our staff so to prepare for this I am looking for information on setting up a BES server on my exchange 03 mail server. We have a bit of an interesting setup here as most of our users either get their e-mail via POP3 or IMAP through our exchange server depending on how the thunderbird client on there workstation is configured. If my users are using POP3 or IMAP do I even need to install BES at all or can the BBs be setup to use POP3 or IMAP? I know they won't be able to sync their calendars without connecting directly to their PCs but until I can convince the powers that be to start using Outlook so they can get more functionality out of their email client I am kinda stuck. Not looking forward to this at all but any help would be appreciated.

The systems here were migrated from Novell to Windows 2003 this past summer and since there was no one working here at the time that had any real experience with Windows an outside consulting firm was brought to do the major setup and then the staff here took over. And because one person in the "IT" department at that time was unable to get outlook to work because she doesn't really know anything about it she decided that they would instead set everyone up with Thunderbird. I just recently started here and it is like talking to a brick wall trying to convince them to change over to Outlook. But I'll get off my soapbox now.

DarthBBerry, Thanks for the link it will help a great deal.

I know I'll get flamed for this but I tried to get them to go with Windows mobile devices since everything we need to make them work is already in place but they are pretty set on the BBs.

I know I could do the BIS thing but I would like to keep everything in-house as much as possible.

If everything works out the way I think it will the folks that are getting the BBs will be forced to change over to Outlook and once they see what they have been missing, and since they have all the pull, maybe we can then begin to move the rest of our users over.

The systems here were migrated from Novell to Windows 2003 this past summer and since there was no one working here at the time that had any real experience with Windows an outside consulting firm was brought to do the major setup and then the staff here took over. And because one person in the "IT" department at that time was unable to get outlook to work because she doesn't really know anything about it she decided that they would instead set everyone up with Thunderbird. I just recently started here and it is like talking to a brick wall trying to convince them to change over to Outlook. But I'll get off my soapbox now.

DarthBBerry, Thanks for the link it will help a great deal.

I know I'll get flamed for this but I tried to get them to go with Windows mobile devices since everything we need to make them work is already in place but they are pretty set on the BBs.

I know I could do the BIS thing but I would like to keep everything in-house as much as possible.

If everything works out the way I think it will the folks that are getting the BBs will be forced to change over to Outlook and once they see what they have been missing, and since they have all the pull, maybe we can then begin to move the rest of our users over.

I see this whole setup as being problematic, as if thunderbird is not set up to keep messages on the server, then no wireless solution is going to work, as the messages will only reside on the server for a short period of time, and whatever application you use(bes or activesync) can just go to the users workstation to retrieve messages. I don't envy you in this situation. Good Luck

It is my understanding that there are only a handfull of users who keep a copy of their email on the server so you bet this is going to be a pain. I have pretty much told my "boss" that the the users who will be getting the BBs are basically going to have to change to Outlook if they want to sync wirelessly but I get the feeling that the point is not getting across. I could go on and on about how this network has been pieced together and it appears they want to continue down that same path.

One of the potential BB users actually has all of their internal email forwarded to an outside account and refuses to seperate the two. But this account maybe the easiest one to setup.

Anyway, Thanks for all of the help and for letting me vent a little bit.

This does not have anything to do with the question you asked but let them get the BB's.

That is a good thing.

Once they have invested the money in the BB and have invested time in getting them set up - then use that "investment process" to your advantaage and as a stepping stone to get what you want - Outlook.